My Beastlet and I doing a stretchy circle at the USDF/CDS Championships this fall. Heat therapy is also often recommended (following initial cold therapy) 72 hours after an injury to help facilitate the healing process as it will increase blood flow to the site. According to their brochure, heat therapy is recommended for warming up before work as a way to possibly reduce tension and reduce potential injuries. After that the gel packs are inserted into the outer boots and applied just like with the cold therapy (again with the eight or so pumps to compress them). In addition to being outstanding for cold therapy, these boots have the added bonus of being able to double as heat therapy as well! The unique gel in the packs may also be heated by being placed in warm water (they recommend a temperature of 160 degrees F) for 20 minutes. Although I’ve fortunately not had to use them yet for an acute injury (knock on wood!), given how easy they are to use and how well they seem to cool the leg I wouldn’t hesitate to use them for any instance that required cold therapy. After the application my horse’s legs are quite cool to the touch and tight. Per the instructions I generally apply the boots, pump about eight times to compress the gel pack to the leg, and then leave them on for about 20 minutes. I keep the gel packs in the freezer and have had no trouble with them freezing solid or being difficult to apply. Generally I use them a few times a week post ride particularly if he’s had an especially heavy workout. Photo (c) Intrepid Intl.Īs mentioned above, I like to try to avoid as many potential injuries as possible which means that so far I have largely used these as preventative maintenance for my horse (rather than while dealing with an acute injury). The Equomed boots somehow manage to avoid all of these pitfalls.Īnother look at the boots and the pump system. Both types of boots seem to fit the leg awkwardly, often sliding down to rest around the fetlock. The boots with removable ice packs get much colder and seem to do a better job cooling the leg, but they are relatively annoying to put together to use. Additionally, the ice boots with the ice pockets or packs built in do not seem to get, or stay, as cold so they don’t do a super job of really cooling the leg. One of the biggest issues I have had with most ice boots is that they do not seem to cool the leg evenly. On my quest I’ve tried multiple types of ice-boots, with some being decently effective and less tedious than others, but the general consensus seemed to be that if they were easy to use they were ineffective and if they were effective they were obscenely onerous to use. Enter the Equomed Lumark Tendon Compression Boots. And so I began my quest for the next best option that was effective but also relatively convenient. Especially not as a daily or even weekly thing ( I’m neurotic but not THAT neurotic). Although I’m all about ‘go big or go home,’ I can’t say I’m on board with this particularly cumbersome method. Most studies suggest that the absolute best way to use cold therapy is full immersion of your horse’s leg(s) in buckets of ice water. While some inflammation is necessary to the healing process, too much can cause additional damage to the tissue and increase the healing time. Essentially cooling the area not only initially provides temporary numbness and pain relief it also decreases the blood flow which lessens the inflammation and the potential damage said inflammation may cause. While there is some question about its efficacy, the anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that cold therapy is quite effective for both preventing and treating multiple soft tissue injuries. One of the most popular forms of preventative maintenance is cold therapy. In an attempt to stifle my slightly paranoid crazy, I like to do a fair amount of preventative maintenance on my horses. Being the incredibly perceptive, and tragically obsessed DQ that I am, I spend a fair amount of time giving myself an ulcer over whether or not my horses’ legs look funny/lumpy/filled/asymmetric/puffy/fill-in-the-blank-with-something-abysmal-and-career-ending/etc ( this is a gross hobby I don’t recommend it). It seems that with performance horses it’s really not ‘if’ they will hurt themselves, but ‘when.’ While I do everything in my power to minimize my horses’ chances to maim themselves, the daily wear and tear they experience from training alone can certainly add up and take a toll on them. This time I’m going to review the Equomed Lumark Tendon Compression Boots. Hello Horse Nation! It’s time for another product review.
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